


I Wanna Sing You a Love Song

by hhertzof



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-31
Updated: 2010-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-14 06:55:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/pseuds/hhertzof
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The perils of notoriety.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Wanna Sing You a Love Song

"Have I ever told you that your planet is a very strange place?" Sarah said in English, so as not to offend Ms Arestia. She still wasn't sure what to make of the other woman--she'd been either appointed or hired by the Desjani Senate to keep an eye on Turlough's finances until he came of age by their laws, but her previous work had all been publicity related. A quick search of Trion's network revealed that she was well known for working with difficult teenage pop stars. Of the three descriptors, Sarah was willing to grant that Turlough could be _difficult_.

Turlough rolled his eyes at her. "My planet? Desjani is certainly strange. In Alsenbach we prefer to think of ourselves as enigmatic" he replied in the same language. "I don't even want to think of what the gossip columns would be saying about us back in England."

"What gossip columns? If we were on Earth, no one would care, and even if they did we wouldn't be expected to _participate_ in the process. Why can't we just have _them_ choose our song? There must be some sappy pop hit they want to promote."

"It doesn't work that way here," Turlough replied, though he looked pained at the thought.

"Clansman Turlough. Ms Smith," Ms Arestia said, sitting back down at the desk. She'd asked them to call her Keran, but neither of them felt comfortable doing that yet. The publicist looked worried. "I understood Ms Smith spoke our language."

"I do," Sarah replied in the same tongue. "A little." Desjani protocol was incredibly complex and there were nuances she couldn't be certain she'd got down. It never hurt to seem less fluent than one was.

Ms Arestia continued in "We were thinking that it should be an Earth song. In English, perhaps, since you come from there. With your return, there's a big fascination with Earth culture."

"Which is how we got into this mess in the first place," Turlough grumbled. "If you'd just let us go back to Alsenbach."

Sarah didn't blame him. It had seemed so simple. She'd come to Trion to testify in a trial--Turlough's guardian had chosen not to report that his charge had gone missing, and had instead used the funds to delve into art fraud. Once he'd been sentenced, she had appeared at a few functions and suddenly they were the couple of the moment. So here they were in a publicity office being forced to come up with a theme song for their interplanetary romance. "Maybe Yellow Submarine?" she asked Turlough in English. "Or better yet, I Will Survive."

"I have a list. Prepared by one of the Earth specialists." Ms Arestia pushed a few sheets of paper across the desk at them, with a list of songs and artists in tiny type.

Turlough and Sarah winced in unison. Judging by what Turlough had told her, the Desjani "Earth specialists didn't know nearly as much about her planet as they thought they did. Sarah braced herself as she picked up the list. It was even worse than she expected. It might be 1996 back on Earth, but most of the songs dated from the sixties and seventies. "The Wind Beneath my Wings? At least they spared us the Bette Midler version."

He grimaced at her and she crossed that one off the list.

"Please Come to Boston, Somewhere Out There. Coming In and Out of Your Life"

"No, no and no." He reached over and took the list from her. "No, no, definitely not, heaven forbid, over my dead body." He paused. "So Far Away, Carole King. I don't know that one."

"It's not terrible. So far away, doesn't anybody stay in one place any more. It would be so fine to see your face at my door..." she sang, rather off-key.

He made a face, but skipped it. "Barry Manilow? Seriously? I think we can do better than that."

"No Manilow. No Air Supply. No ABBA. And most certainly no Olivia Newton John or Sonny and Cher," Sarah said firmly.

Ms Arestia looked from one to the other frowning at them, though she clearly didn't understand most of what was being said. "You have to choose one."

"We haven't eliminated everything," Sarah said reassuringly. "We're just trying to choose a song that we both like."

Turlough grimaced but nodded his agreement. "If we must have a song, I'd rather not loathe it before I have to hear it every time our names are mentioned."

"Just pick one. By whatever means you choose." Ms Arestia glared at them. "Preferably before you go out in public again." She turned back to her own work, leaving the two of them to their assigned task.

The list was three pages long and clearly the listmaker's tastes ran to the sappiest songs around.

"You'd think they could have included some David Bowie or Moody Blues," Turlough said as they finally reached the end of their first pass.

"Music to brood by?" Sarah asked cheekily, studying the list. About 95% of it had been crossed off already. "The songs we have left are: "So Far Away, Secret, What Are We Doing in Love?, Something to Talk About, Come Monday, Total Eclipse of the Heart, and Wishing You Were Here. I'm sensing a theme."

"They do seem inclined to the long-distance love affair. I suppose we can't blame them. What do you think? _Total Eclipse of the Heart? Shall we go for melodrama?" He reached for the pen and drew a line through _Secret_ , _Come Monday_ and _What Are We Doing In Love?__

Sarah grinned. "It's better than most of the alternatives If we're going to be _that star-crossed couple_ , we might as well do the thing properly. Though I'm tempted by _Wishing You Were Here_."

"But if we do the other, we can insist that they import the video. Think of the bewilderment."

Sarah snorted. "I feel guilty that the first music in English that your people will be introduced to is Jim Steinman."

"Is it? _Bat out of Hell_ Jim Steinman." Turlough doubled over with laughter. "I didn't know that. I suppose Paradise by the Dashboard Light is out."

"It's not on the _approved_ list," Sarah said in her poshest voice. "Wouldn't want them to get the wrong idea."

"Total Eclipse, it is, then." Turlough said in Dejanis. "And see if you can get the rights to the video too. It would fit right in with Jaedin's latest pop single." He somehow managed to keep a straight face when he said that, though Sarah couldn't think of any song less like _Always You're Mine_ or _Sweet Rainy Days_.

Ms Arestia surprised them both by laughing. "I doubt that, but it might be good for him." She tilted her head at Turlough. "I have to say that it's going to be nice to work for someone whose idea of fun is more _subtle_ than trashing hotel rooms or flirting with every boy he meets."

"Was Jaedin that bad?" Sarah asked.

"Jaedin and his parents didn't understand that my job was to keep the kid out of trouble, not clean up after him. I invoked that clause in my contract within a month after being hired by the touring company representing him." Ms Arestia shrugged. "I gather his contract was contingent on my remaining in place. Knowing his parents, there's going to be a long, nasty lawsuit that the touring company will win, but I'm well out of it."

Getting out of Desjani, probably wouldn't hurt, but Sarah didn't blame her. "Anything else?"

"Not that I can think of. I'll set my people on it and soon your faces will be everywhere."

Turlough grimaced. "I suppose it's the price I pay for the life I've led. So when cah I go back to Alsenbach."

"I'm working on that. A day or two at most. Are you sure you'll be okay in Alsenbach?" Ms Arestia asked. "They haven't even acknowledged the wrong done to you during your trial."

"We don't play well with others. The Regent's Council will be happy enough to see me when I get home. As long as they're not being bombarded with our song." Turlough gave that word a special twist.

"I think I can manage that. People have tried to apply the formulas they use to create pop hits in the North in Alsenbach. They never work. As you said, your people don't play well with others." She glanced at her watch. "I have one more meeting with the Senatorial committee, and I'll try to push your escape up a day or two. Just do me a favour and take Sarah out to dinner. The more popular you two are, the less they'll want you around. Decadent Southerners and all that."

Turlough smirked. "I think I can manage that. And if cornered by paparazzi, I shall make snide comments about the class system and question their treatment of their colonies."

"That will do it." Ms Arestia looked at him suspiciously. "I love having an _intelligent_ charge. Don't tell the others I said that, though. You've got a resevation at 108 at half past eighteen. And now I must dash." She slid her documents into her briefcase, and headed out the door.

"I like her," Sarah offered.

"I do to, but I'm not sure I trust her just yet."

Sarah didn't blame Turlough for being wary, not after what he'd been through.

He offered her his arm. "Shall we?"

She ignored it. Arm in arm they'd never fit through the door. "We shall. At least I'll get a good dinner out of this."

He laughed and led her out the door.


End file.
